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LIBRARY 


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OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 


WESTERN  BENEFITS 

THROUGH 

CHINA'S  DEVELOPMENT 


Dear  Sir: 

This  article  from  the  pen  of  our  Consul-General,  Mr.  Ho 
Yow,  reaches  so  profomidly  into  the  springs  from  which  the  trade 
between  the  United  States  and  China  must  arise,  and  so  ably  sets 
forth  the  conditions  upo?i  which  that  commerce  ?nust  groiv,  that  we 
have  take?i  the  liberty  of  reproducing  it  from  (l  The  Forum ' '  in  which 
it  first  appeared,  and  of  se?iding  it  to  you  in  this  form.  We  request 
you  to  read  it  and  express  the  belief  that,  after  reading  it,  your 
views  will  be  benefited  as  to  the  possible  value  of  Chinese  commerce 
to  the  United  States. 

Very  respectfully, 

CHIN  SIC  CHO  W, 

President  Chi?iese  Six  Compa?iies , 
San  Francisco. 
Wong  Chungs 

Secretary. 


WESTERN  BENEFITS 

THROUGH 

CHINA'S  DEVELOPMENT 


BvJtfO  YOW, 

imperial  Chinese  Consul-general 


(Reprinted  from  THE  FORUM  of  March,  iooo.) 


In  the  mind  of  every  man  who  reads  his  article,  China  must 
hereafter  stand  for  something  higher  and  better  than  before. 

Portland  Oregonian. 


San  Francisco 

the;  mysf,IvL-r.oi,i,ins  co. 

22  Clay  Street 
1900 


/r^^^ 


Western  Benefits  Through  Chinas  Development 


By     HO    YOW 

Imperial  Chinese  Consul-General  to  the  United  States. 


The  leavening  of  the  vast  Chinese  Empire,  begun  within  the  past 
quarter  of  a  century,  by  Western  thought,  is  now  strongly  felt 
throughout  the  realm.  Under  the  fostering  influence  of  a  wise  and 
progressive  government,  it  is  effecting  in  a  nation  of  over  400,000,000 
souls  marvellously  beneficent  changes.  These  have  been  watched  by 
the  peoples  of  the  West  with  the  utmost  gratification,  and  with  the 
liveliest  anticipation  and  hope. 

He  must  be  a  curious  man  of  the  West  who  does  not  feel  a  certain 
pride  in  the  fact  that  the  creations  of  his  half  of  the  world  have  begun 
to  enter  the  thought  realm  of  what  is  practically  the  remainder  of  the 
earth,  and  to  effect  methods,  to  establish  modes,  even  to  subvert 
forms  in  a  region  which  for  many  centuries  esteemed  itself,  and  was 
in  truth,  the  supreme  of  the  Universe.  There  is  an  element  of  sym- 
pathy in  human  nature  which  feels  gratification  in  the  advancement 
of  a  fellow  being,  and  contemplates  with  admiration  and  applause  his 
rise  to  higher  things. 

It  is  not  altogether  consepts  and  precepts  that  move  the  numerous 
followers  of  your  Christian  faiths  to  establish  schools,  asylums,  and 
hospitals,  to  usher  the  young  into  a  flowering  maturity,  and  to  nurse 
the  sick  to  health.  There  is  an  instinct,  as  natural  to  mankind  as  the 
instinct  of  self-preservation,  which  makes  for  the  promotion  of  others 
in  the  scale  of  being;  and  this  instinct,  operating  on  a  plane  as  wide 
as  the  human  nature  of  which  it  is  a  part,  takes  no  account  of  race 
lines  or  color  limits.  Your  missionary  conceives  that  his  doctrines 
will  secure  happiness  to  the  soul  after  death:  straightway  he  traverses 
cities  and  plains  and  jungles  in  search  of  all  men  not  in  accord  with 
his  views,  be  they  pale,  black,  yellow,  or  red.  But  this  most  noble 
quality,  like  every  other  benevolent  trait  of  our  natures,  may,  in 
individual  instances  be  perverted.  Where  there  were  heartiness, 
helpfulness,  and  generosity  there  may  come  narrowness  and  selfish- 
ness; and,  unfortunate  as  the  fact  may  be,   these  faults,  which  we  are 


inclined  to  pity  in  people,  who,  from  pinched,  material  conditions, 
regard  with  envy  their  more  successful  brothers,  may  exist  in  those 
who  have  not  the  excuse  of  material  pressure,  but  who  evolve  their 
views  from  philosophy. 

It  is  false  philosophy,  however,  that  leads  to  such  conclusions;  for 
any  reasoning  which  results  in  pitting  man  against  man  in  just  as 
wrong  as  the  notion  in  chemistry  which  once  designated  filth  as 
waste  matter.  We  have  since  learned  that  filth  is  but  matter  out  of 
place,  that,  in  the  harmony  of  nature,  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
waste.  In  the  realm  of  human  brotherhood  similar  harmonies  exist; 
as  if  any  line  of  thought  concludes  with  a  postulate  that  the  prosperity 
and  advancement  of  one  people  are  irreconcilable  with  the  prosperity 
and  advancement  of  another  people,  that  the  living  of  one  body  of  the 
race  upon  a  plane  of  high  ideals  can  be  maintained  only  through  the 
degradation  of  another  body  of  the  race,  or  through  the  continuance 
of  it  upon  a  level  distinctly  inferior,  that  line  of  thought,  depend 
upon  it,  is  wrong  and  mischievous. 

It  is  to  me  a  most  painful  circumstance  that  this  idea  of  the  suc- 
cess of  one  nation  being  dependent  upon  the  non-success  of  another 
nation,  and  whence  of  the  world,  should  be  so  widely  diffused  in  the 
United  States;  and  it  is  remarkable,  too,  that  it  should  be  diffused 
not  only  in  the  teeth  of  philosophy,  but  in  the  very  presence  of  facts 
incessantly  proclaiming  to  the  contrary.  It  is  a  school  of  thought 
which,  I  am  glad  to  say,  England  has  survived,  and  which,  it  is 
comforting  to  note,  the  United  States,  under  the  sagacious  adminis- 
tration now  existing  at  Washington,  is  rapidly  putting  aside  through 
the  avenue  of  reciprocity  treaties. 

Nevertheless,  there  are  those  who,  in  all  seriousness,  maintain, 
with  specious  arguments,  that  the  development  of  one  nation  must 
operate  to  the  harm  of  the  nations  with  which  it  trades  if  trade  be 
left  open  between  them.  The  most  striking  instance  which  I  have 
lately  observed  of  the  assertion  of  this  fallacy  elaborated  with 
wrongly  drawn  deductions,  is  the  article  by  Mr.  John  P.  Young,  in 
The  Forum  for  November,  1899.  It  is  more  notable  to  me  since  the 
nation  against  which  it  is  aimed  is  China.  Mr.  Young  is  the 
first  man  who,  to  my  knowledge,  has  specifically  declared  in 
public  print  that  the  industrial  development  now  progressing  in 
China  will  result  detrimentally  to  the  welfare  of  the  United  States.  If 
this  voice  had  come  from  New  York  I  might  have  thought  that  it 
was  moved  by  rivalry  on  the  part  of  the  Eastern  metropolis  caused 
by  the  impending  greatness  of  the  chief  seaport  of  the  Pacific  coast, 
fronting,  as  San  Francisco  does,  the  very  face  of  China.  But  when 
it  is  considered  that  Mr.  Young  is  a  resident  of  San  Francisco  and 
managing  editor  of  one  of  the  largest  newspapers  on  the  coast,  a 


newspaper  which  makes  it  its  especial  province  to  foster  the 
industrial  growth  of  the  city  and  State,  his  error  becomes  all  the  more 
perplexing. 

Mr.  Young  takes  the  curious  position  that  the  development  of 
China,  which  would  mean  her  rise  in  the  production  of  those  things 
esteemed  by  Westerners,  would  be  a  menace,  and  a  possible  blight, 
to  Western  industry.  It  is  singular  that  any  American  should  be 
found  who  asserts  that  American  industry  stands  upon  so  unstable  a 
basis.  If  the  assertion  were  true,  the  country  would  have  good 
reason  to  fear,  and  would  urgently  need  to  post  geese  on  the  Capitol 
to  quack  out  in  the  night  at  the  approach  of  an  invader.  Any 
civilization  built  upon  such  sands  would  surely  he  swept  away;  and 
the  day  of  its  downfall  could  never  be  far  from  the  date  of  its  rise. 
Mr.  Young  feels  that  the  vast  natural  resources  of  China,  together 
with  her  myriads  of  population,  among  whom  the  laborers  are  willing 
to  work  for  a  mere  pittance  per  day,  when  acted  upon  by  the  methods 
in  Western  use  will  result  in  producing  so  cheaply  that  the  producers 
of  the  United  States  will  be  unable  to  compete  with  such  products 
in  their  own  market.  The  result  will  be,  Mr.  Young  thinks,  not  only 
to  drive  American  salesmen  out  of  China,  but  to  a  large  degree  to 
close  American  mills,  and  to  convert  their  salesmen  into  purveyors 
of  Chinese  wares.  The  picture  is  exceedingly  dark.  Here  we  have 
China's  import  trade  entirely  eliminated,  and  an  immence  export 
trade  developed,  by  which  China  is  inundating  the  United  States  with 
the  things  her  people  want,  and  taking  nothing  in  return. 

Mr.  Young  would  say,  however,  that  China  would  demand  gold 
for  her  goods,  and,  in  this  way,  would  drain  the  country  of  gold. 
But  China  does  not  want  gold;  almost  every  pennyweight  mined 
within  her  territory  being  sent  abroad.  Gold  is  not  currency  with 
her;  it  is  a  commodity  no  more  specialized  or  valued  than  cloth  or 
grain — indeed,  not  so  much.  China 's  standard  is  silver,  and  silver  you 
do  not  want.  Seven  out  of  every  ten  of  your  silver  mines  are  today 
lying  idle.  The  people  of  the  States  in  which  the  mines  are  located 
have  recently  been  waging  a  vigorous  campaign  to  open  the  mints 
of  the  country  to  the  coinage  of  silver,  in  order  that  a  market  for 
their  commodity  may  be  created.  Now  here,  according  to  Mr.  Young, 
is  China,  which  will  be  willing  to  take  their  silver  and  to  give  goods 
in  their  return.  Consequently,  in  any  event,  if  Chinese  competition 
should  close  the  cotton  mills  of  Massachusetts,  the  iron  mills  of 
Pennsylvania,  the  tanneries  of  Chicago,  the  furniture  factories  of 
Michigan,  and  so  on  throughout  the  whole  gamut  of  American 
enterprise,  it  would  at  least  open  the  silver  mines  of  Utah,  Nevada, 
and  Montana,  and  make  populous  and  powerful  those  now  neglected 
States. 


Mean  while, it  must  be  remembered  that  China  has  immense  resources 
of  silver  of  her  own.  The  mountains  which  flank  the  Great  Desert  of 
Gobi,  the  Tsin-lings,  the  Pelings,  the  Nan-lings,  all  contain  great 
deposits  of  silver;  the  mountains  of  Yun-nan  being  particularly  rich 
in  it.  When  the  concessionaires  to  whom  China  has  granted  the 
privilege  of  digging  and  reducing  much  of  this  ore  shall,  by  modern 
methods,  have  completed  their  tasks,  then  as  much  silver  as  all  the 
needs  of  art  or  trade  require  shall  be  leit  loose  over  the  Empire;  and 
small  call  may  be  made  upon  foreign  commerce  for  the  money  metal. 
If  in  the  eyes  of  Mr.  Young  such  a  calamity  takes  place,  and  if,  as  he 
assumes,  China  still  persists  in  sending  to  the  United  States  her 
goods,  why  then,  manufacturing  everything  cheaper  than  like  articles 
are  made  here,  there  could,  of  course,  be  nothing  taken  in  return;  and 
the  United  States  would  be  deluged  in  clean  gift  with  infinite  quan- 
tities of  superior  Chinese  goods  to  the  closing  of  all  her  mills  and  to 
the  utter  idleness  of  her  people.  Imagine  such  a  state!  Every  person 
in  possession  of  all  he  could  desire  to  eat,  drink,  and  wear,  all  of 
Chinese  production,  for  which  nothing  could  be  taken  in  return 
because  of  your  cost  of  manufacture,  and  withal,  lolling  in  enforced 
and  complete  indolence!  Surely  the  possibilities  of  such  a  catastrophe 
might  alarm  any  one.  To  avert  such  a  misfortune  the  pens  of  such 
publicists  as  Mr.  Young  might  well  be  engaged. 

Mr.  Young  gives  reasons  of  inclining  to  the  opinion  that  the  Chinese 
will  take  nothing  in  return  for  what  they  send.  The  chief  reason  is, 
that  the  Chinese  want  nothing.  He  tells  us  that  " for  nearly  half  a 
century  Europeans  and  Americans  have  had  very  few  obstructions 
placed  in  the  way  of  introducing  their  wares  to  the  attention  of  the 
millions  living  in  and  near  the  treaty  ports;  and  in  that  time  they 
have  not  succeeded  in  securing  as  great  a  market  for  their  surplus  of 
manufactured  products  as  that  created  in  half  the  time  in  spasely 
populated  Argentina."  He  tells  us,  too,  that,  in  California,  "such  a 
thing  as  Europeans  and  Americans  manufacturing  for  Chinese  con- 
sumption is  never  thought  of;  and  i  f  the  idea  ever  did  occur,  it  would  be 
speedily  abandoned;  because  if  the  article  wereone  which  this  really 
curious  people  wanted,  they  would  turn  to  and  make  it  themselves." 
And  then  he  remarks  that  "the  workers  of  Europe  and  the  United 
States  may  not  take  kindly  to  the  prospect  of  China's  vast  stores  of 
mineral  wealth  being  converted  by  Chinese  into  finished  articles  for 
consumption  in  the  Western  World."    Mr.  Young  says  furthermore: 

"  It  is  probable  that,  in  the  earlier  stages  of  modern  industrial 
development,  the  vast  surplus  energy  of  the  Empire  will  be  utilized 
in  manufacturing  for  outsiders  rather  than  for  Chinese.  The  latter, 
until  they  radically  change  their  habits  of  living,  until  they  learn  to 
consume  wastefully,  must  necessarily  be    poor  customers   for  the 


wares  which  they  may  produce  in  profusion."  So  he  concludes  that 
"  it  may  be  safely  predicted  that  the  effect  of  the  opening  of  China 
to  the  trade  of  the  world  will  not  be  followed  by  results  so  confidently 
expected  by  people  who  have  surplus  products  that  they  are  anxious 
to  dispose  of  at  a  profit.  Instead,  the  effect  of  the  opening  and 
awakening  will  probably  be  to  bring  disaster  upon  Western  indus- 
trialism unless  a  barrier  be  interposed  to  the  competition  of  a  race 
whose  most  striking  characteristic  is  an  entire  absence  of  those 
desires  and  aspirations  which  Americans  and  Europeans  strive  to 
gratify.  This  notable  peculiarity,  at  this  stage  of  the  world's  devel- 
opment, may  give  the  Chinese  an  overwhelming  advantage  in  the 
struggle  for  existence,  and  compel  the  Western  working  classes  to 
abandon  their  ideals." 

So  it  is  plain  that  the  Chinese  will  persist  in  sending  without 
taking,  and  that  they  will  not  take  because  they  do  not  want.  They 
do  not  want  because  traits,  the  "  result  of  an  intense  struggle  for 
existence  extending  through  thousands  of  years,"  have  trained  them 
to  the  utmost  parsimony  in  living.  Their  houses  are  of  "a  uniform 
low  level  and  monotonous  appearance,  the  interiors  being  as  uni- 
form as  the  exteriors.  The  meager  furnishing  and  extreme  plainness 
which  mark  nearly  all  interiors  are  due  to  a  national  trait,  and  are 
not  enforced  by  lack  of  things  with  which  to  make  home  beautiful." 
In  communities  like  the  Chinese,  he  says,  "the  only  incentive  to 
accumulation  is  a  mere  desire  for  subsistence  which  takes  the  form 
of  providing  for  a  rainy  day.  The  desire  for  reputability,  which  is 
responsible  for  the  system  of  conspicuous  waste  that  marks  the 
expenditures  of  all  highly  civilized  Western  peoples,  and  is  account- 
able for  the  chief  part  of  the  consumption  of  the  manufactured  goods 
in  the  Western  world,  is  almost  unknown  in  China ;  and  it  is  doubt- 
ful whether  such  a  struggle  could  be  incited  in  that  country." 

But,  not  only  in  his  house,  we  are  informed,  are  the  Chinese 
content  to  dispense  with  luxuries,  but  in  the  matter  of  dress  the 
utmost  uniformity  prevails.  Fashion,  that  incentive  to  incessant 
change  and  unending  waste  in  clothes,  is  not  known  among  us; 
hence,  he  argues,  much  less  material  would  be  consumed  by  us  than 
is  consumed  by  Western  peoples.  Consequently,  on  the  whole, 
there  would  be  no  demand  by  the  Chinese  for  Western  goods ;  while 
the  cargoes  of  utilities  which  we  would  deliver  upon  these  shores 
could  only  be  warded  off  by  high  and  hostile  tariffs,  for  the  enact, 
ment  and  levying  of  which,  Mr.  Young's  article  is  especially  framed- 
The  absurdity  of  the  statements  of  Mr.  Young  and  of  his  deductions 
is  so  palpable  that  ordinarily  I  would  not  bother  to  reply  to  them. 
But  it  is  an  unhappy  fact  that  his  views  are  shared  by  others.  I 
have  said  that  he  has  been  the  first  to    publish  them.     He    seems 


8 

to  have  taken  his  cue,  however,  from  what  he  calls  a  "warning  note" 
sounded  by  " Bradstreet's  Trade  Review;"  reciting  that  " some  day- 
China  will  figure  as  a  competitor  in  many  lines  of  industries  in  the 
markets  of  the  world."  This  competition  is  what  these  champions  of 
monopoly  fear. 

They  are  champions  of  monopoly,  though  they  may  not  know  it. 
What  afflicts  them  is  the  unfortunate  perversion  of  ideas  which  has 
arisen  in  the  United  States  through  a  trade  system  created  by  legis- 
lative acts  in  opposition  to  the  natural  trend,  and  which  is  built  upon 
the  error  that  foreign  trade  means  an  exchange  of  goods  for  gold.  If, 
therefore,  you  can  have  vast  quantities  of  goods  going  out  of  your 
country,  and  great  amounts  of  gold  coming  in,  then  you  have  the 
acme  of  what  you  call  "  national  prosperity."  The  very  statement 
looked  at  as  a  cold  formula  is  ridiculous.  Suppose  this  sort  of  thing 
possible.  Suppose  that  in  the  range  of  the  Tsin-lings  we  should  find 
a  mountain  of  pure  gold,  and  we  should  send  this  stuff  to  you  by  ship- 
load, as  we  probably  should  in  exchange  for  your  goods.  What 
would  be  the  result?  Why,  very  shortly  gold  would  become  so 
plentiful  in  your  country  that  its  purchasing  power  would  not  equal 
the  cost  of  digging  it  from  the  mountain  and  transporting  it,  slight  as 
might  be  that  cost  in  cheap  labor  in  China.  Asa  consequence,  your 
one-sided  foreign  trade  would  be  shut  off  entirely,  snuffed  out  by  the 
very  process  upon  which,  in  lack  of  wisdom,  you  wish  to  base  your 
foreign  trade,  and  which  such  disputants  as  Mr.  Young  are  alert  to 
defend.  Nay,  this  mountain  of  gold  idea  may  not  be  altogether  alle- 
gorical. Our  alchemists  have  always  held  that  gold  is  a  compound  ; 
a  view  now  finding  sanction  among  the  metallurgists  of  the  United 
vStates.  It  may  be  that  we  who  discovered  gunpowder  and  the  fact 
that  the  magnet  inclines  to  the  pole  shall  yet  discover  the  reaction 
which  produces  gold.  When  we  do  you  shall  have  gold  to  your 
heart's  content ;  but,  as  a  result,  you  will  find  how  quickly  you  will 
correct  your  notion  that  foreign  trade  consists  of  an  exchange  of 
goods  for  gold. 

You  will  then  learn  the  great  and  universal  truth  that  trade  is 
barter,  an  exchange  of  goods  for  goods.  You  will  learn,  too,  this 
potent  and  sadly  overlooked  fact,  that  the  more  goods  that  come  into 
a  nation  the  more  goods  must  go  out  to  pay  for  them.  Consequently, 
that  heavy  imports  are  much  to  be  desired ;  and  all  limits  and  restric- 
tions upon  them  which  impair  their  free  ingress  should  be  as  far  as 
possible  swept  aside  ;  for,  as  the  night  follows  the  day,  heavy  imports 
nto  your  country  must  be  followed  by  heavy  exports. 

Mr.  Young  does  us  Chinese  a  keen  injustice  by  his  inference  that 
we  would  send  any  goods  without  demanding  a  full  and  adequate 
return ;  and  he  is  entirely  wrong  when  he  supposes  that  we  want 


nothing  that  you  have.  On  the  contrary,  the  Chinese  want  avast 
number  of  things.  No  people  have  desires  pitched  higher;  no  people 
are  more  eager  to  advance.  What  does  Mr.  Young  suppose  to  be  the 
incentive  which  forces  the  lowest  born  coolie  to  strive  in  salt  mines 
or  to  pack  burdens  day  by  day  over  long  and  tedious  roads,  if  it  is 
not  that  he  desires  to  better  himself?  Wherever  the  Chinese  have 
gone  they  have  become  distinguished,  not  alone  for  industry  but  also 
for  the  wealth  which  attends  it.  Where  the  Chinese  have  settled,  in 
all  of  those  kingdoms  and  communities  adjacent  to  China,  they  are 
foremost  among  the  men  of  wealth  and  influence.  In  Corea,  the 
Straits  Settlements,  and  the  Philippines  they  have  long  constituted 
the  very  backbone  of  commerce  and  finance. 

It  is  wrong,  too,  to  say  that  the  Chinese  do  not  desire  or  enjoy 
luxuries.  Mr.  Young  does  not  understand  us.  Our  ideas  of  those 
things  are  different  from  his,  but  they  are  none  the  less  expensive- 
He  thinks  that  because  we  do  not  wear  starched  linen  and  silk  hats, 
and  because  our  women  do  not  wear  lingerie,  we  consume  little.  But 
the  gentleman  is  mistaken.  The  garb  of  the  ordinary  Chinese 
about  equals  in  cost  that  of  the  Americans.  Your  negroes  working 
in  the  rice  fields  of  the  South  are  scarcely  better  clad  than  our  coolies 
in  similar  occupations.  Among  the  upper  classes  your  dress  does 
not  compare  in  cost  with  ours.  If  your  gentleman  of  leisure  pays 
$100  for  a  suit  of  clothes  his  habit  may  be  considered  expensive:  with 
us  the  very  embroidery  on  the  breast-piece  of  the  jacket  frequently 
costs  more.  Mr.  Young  must  not  think  that  because  we  do  not 
follow  Western  styles  we  have  no  luxurious  tastes.  There  is  nothing 
in  Western  styles  to  tempt  us.  I  have  myself  donned  the  European 
garb  on  several  occasions,  and  I  have  always  found  it  stiff,  tight  and 
awkward.  It  encases  the  body  with  an  inconvenience  which  would 
be  intolerable  if  the  wearer  knew  better. 

Mr.  Young  must  not  forget  that  progress  in  China  does  not  mean 
our  forsaking  national  habits  in  such  things  as  clothes  and  modes  of 
life.  In  a  thousand  things  we  do  not  bow  to  the  West.  Your  effects 
may  be  different  from  ours  ;  but  they  are  not  superior.  We  were  a 
civilization  more  powerful  than  Rome  at  her  best,  in  a  day  when  the 
hills  of  Rome  were  pasture,  and  when  the  only  peoples  of  the  wilder- 
ness which  is  now  your  land  were  savages.  You  cannot  expect  forms 
which  the  wisdom  of  thousands  of  years  has  confirmed  to  be  swept 
away  because  you  have  another  fashion.  Mr.  Chester  Holcomb,  who 
was  for  years  a  member  of  the  United  States  Legation  at  Peking, 
speaking  of  our  poorer  classes  in  his  work,  "  The  Real  Chinaman," 
p.  311,  says:  "  The  Chinese  do  not  live  poorly  because  they  desire 
nothing  better.  Like  all  other  men  they  live  as  well  as  their  earnings 
or  resources  will  allow.     A  wealthy  Chinaman  dresses  as  expensively, 


IO 

though  in  a  different  style,  has  a  table  as  luxurious,  though  his  taste 
may  be  esteemed  peculiar,  and  generally  maintains  the  same  elegance 
as  his  Western  brother.  There,  as  everywhere  else,  income  must 
control  the  expense."* 

But  the  fact  that  Chinese  have  their  own  ideals  and  models  does 
not  mean  that  there  is  nothing  used  in  Western  life  that  they 
want.  They  want,  as  I  have  said,  thousands  of  things  you  have.  It 
is  not  anticipating  too  much  to  opine  that  the  modern  American 
house,  with  its  conveniences  and  comforts,  will  be  the  future  house 
of  China.  Her  cities  will  be  sewered  and  paved,  lighted  with  electric 
lamps  and  threaded  with  electric  car  lines.  They  will  have  water 
works  and  fire  departments  and  spacious  public  edifices.  The  mate- 
rials for  many  of  these  thingsmustcome  from  the  West.  But  Mr.  Young 
must  not  forget  that  before  we  can  procure  these  things  we  must  first 
have  something  to  buy  them  with  ;  and  the  only  things  with  which 
we  or  any  other  people  have  to  buy  are  the  products  of  our  labor.  If, 
then,  our  products  are  of  slight  value,  reckoned  upon  the  unit  of  popu- 
lation, our  exchanges  must  be  correspondingly  small,  and  our  trade 
must  be  worth  little. 

This  must  always  be  the  case  so  long  as  China  produces  by  hand 
labor  and  not  by  machines.  What  is  a  machine  in  relation  to  labor  ? 
It  is  a  multiplication  of  the  power  of  the  hand  that  runs  it.  A  cobbler 
will  make  one  pair  of  shoes  in  two  days.  Give  him  a  machine  and 
the  skill  to  run  it,  and  he  will  make  twenty  pairs  of  shoes  in  the 
same  time.  What  is  this  but  a  multiform  increase  of  the  potentiality  of 
his  hand.  With  his  bare  hands  and  his  tools  he  had  one  pair  of  shoes 
at  the  end  of  two  days  with  which  to  buy  food,  clothes  and  furniture; 
with  his  machine  he  has  twenty  pairs,  less  cost  of  materials,  to  devote 
to  the  same  end.  Chinese  labor  is  cheap,  but  only  because  its  effect- 
iveness is  small.  Let  this  be  magnified  with  the  power  of  machines, 
and  it  will  be  dear  enough.  Chinamen  will  be  prompt  to  demand 
their  full  share  of  the  wealth  which  their  hands  produce  after  they 
have  been  potentialized  by  the  machine,  just  as  Mr.  Young  correctly 

*In  John  Thompson's  book,  "Through  China  with  a  Camera,  "there  is  on  page  258  the  following 
description  of  a  Chinese  gentleman  of  today  and  his  house  :  "Mr.  Yang  was  a  fair  sample  of  the 
modern  Chinese  savant — fat,  good-natured  and  contented.  His  house,  like  most  others  in 
China  was  approached  through  a  lane  hedged  in  by  high  brick  walls  on  either  side,  so  that  there 
was  nothing  to  be  seen  of  it  from  without  save  the  small  doorway  and  the  small  brick  partition 
about  six  feet  beyond  the  threshold.  Within  there  was  the  usual  array  of  courts  and  halls,  reached 
by  narrow  vine-shaded  corridors;  but  each  court  was  tastefully  laid  out  with  rockeries,  flowers, 
fish  ponds,  and  pavilions.  Really,  the  place  was  very  picturesque  and  admirably  suited  to  the 
disposition  of  a  people  affecting  seclusion  and  the  pleasures  of  family  life.  Its  proprietor  was  an 
amateur,  not  only  of  photography,  but  of  chemistry  and  electricity,  too  ;  and  he  had  a  laboratory 
fitted  up  in  the  ladies'  quarter.  In  one  corner  of  this  laboratory  stood  a  black  carved  bedstead, 
curtained  with  silk  and  pillowed  with  wood  ;  while  a  carved  bench  also  of  black  wood,  supported 
a  heterogeneous  collection  of  instruments,  chemical,  electric  and  photographic,  besides  Chinese 
and  Kuropean  books.  The  walls  were  garnished  with  enlarged  photographs  of  Yang's  family  and 
friends.  In  a  small  outer  court  there  was  a  steam  saw  mill,  with  which  the  owner  had  achieved 
wonders." 


II 

remarks  that,  as  toilers  in  the  West,  they  have  come  to  "  enjoy  better 
wages  than  most  of  the  purely  laboring  classes  of  the  Western  world." 
Mr.  Young,  in  common  with  his  school,  overlooks  a  salient  fact. 
He  concludes  that  the  demand  for  labor  arises  from  a  scarcity  of 
labor's  products.  Hence,  if  abundance  comes  into  a  nation  from 
abroad,  there  are  consequent  congestion  and  idleness  within.  It  is 
doubtless  this  mistake  that  causes  Mr.  Young  to  fear  the  onslaught 
of  goods  which,  he  argues,  will  come  from  China  into  the  United 
States  in  free  gift  and  without  value  exacted  in  return.  The  idea  of 
there  not  being  u  enough  work  to  go  round  "  was  the  idea  of  ancient 
China,  just  as  it  is  the  present  idea  of  Mr.  Young's  school.  It  was 
this  that  tabooed  machines  "  because  they  produce  so  much  that  there 
would  be  nothing  left  to  do  ; "  consequently,  dearth  was  cherished  as 
a  national  necessity.  But  such  modern  statesmen  as  Prince  Ching, 
Yung  Lu,  14  Hung  Chang,  and  Wu  Ting-fang  have  perceived  differ- 
ently. With  a  vision  unaffected  by  interests  other  than  truth,  they 
discern  that  the  greatness  of  the  West  exists  because  of  its  machines 
and  that,  as  the  effect  of  the  machine  is  to  multiply  produce,  so  the 
produce  thus  created  in  turn  calls  upon  other  mechanisms  and  other 
labor. 

The  starched  linen  of  which  Mr.  Young  speaks  would  not  exist  if 
you  would  not  produce  more  corn  and  potatoes  than  you  require  for 
food.  Take  away  your  steam  ploughs,  cultivators,  diggers,  and  shel- 
ters, and  if  any  one  wears  starched  linen  some  one  will  have  to  go 
hungry  to  allow  it.  It  is  the  presence  of  wealth  that  creates  a  demand 
for  wealth.  The  human  mind  is  so  adjusted  that  as  soon  at  it  is  gratified 
it  begins  to  evolve  visions  of  further  desires.  Demand  breeds  upon 
what  it  feeds;  it  can  never  be  surfeited.  Take  your  Indian  out  of  his 
canvas  tepee  and  build  him  a  house,  he  will  forthwith  want  it  f urnfshed ; 
put  carpet  on  his  parlor  floor,  and  he  will  crave  a  piano;  give  him 
china  dishes,  he  will  abolish  jerked  beef  and  require  ragouts.  This 
quality  is  an  instinct  of  nature  and  exists  in  all  peoples,  including  the 
sensitive,  alert,  calculating,  and  eager  Chinaman. 

It  is  not  we  who  are  the  adherents  of  uniformity;  it  is  Mr.  Young  and 
his  class.  Through  the  installation  of  monopoly,  which  seeks  to  con- 
trol certain  lines  of  production  within  the  country,  Mr.  Young  would 
have  a  crystallized  condition  that  nothing  could  disturb;  and  you 
would  go  on  purchasing  the  products  of  your  combine  which,  secure 
and  absolute  in  its  market,  would  have  no  need  to  regard  the  world's 
progress  in  its  utility,  and  would  continue  indefinitely  to  supply  you 
with  whatever  it  might  please.  We,  on  the  other  hand,  seeking  a 
market  for  our  like  product,  would  be  constantly  watchful  to  cheapen 
its  cost  and  to  increase  its  merit.  Left  to  itself  the  world  of  produc- 
tion  is  constantly    changing,     constantly   working   toward   higher 


12 


planes;  being  unceasingly  drawn  into  accord  with  the  higher  reaches 
of  human  thought.  It  is  only  when  its  action  is  obstructed  by  such 
"barriers  interposed  to  competition"  as  Mr.  Young  asks  for,  that  it 
subsides  into  static  quiescence.  Left  to  itself  it  will  follow  man  in  all 
his  ideals;  interfered  with  by  "barriers"  it  becomes  paralyzed. 

After  all,  what  are  utilities,  or  these  things  we  call  "goods,"  which 
we  import  an  export?  They  are  no  other  than  expressions  of  human 
thought  impressed  upon  matter.  Looking  to  your  imports  and  not 
beyond  them,  from  which  countries  do  you  get  evidences  of  the  high- 
est civilization — from  Europe  or  from  Africa,  from  England  or  from 
Turkey?  You  do  not  have  to  look  beyond  what  a  people  puts  forth 
to  fix  its  position  in  the  scale  of  being.  In  truth,  by  such  alone  may  they 
be  judged;  for  goods  are  acts;  and,  as  men  or  nations  act,  so  are  they 
high  or  low  in  the  domain  of  thought.  The  reason  why  China  is 
behind  the  United  States  in  material  achievements  is,  that  our  masses, 
as  compared  with  yours,  have  little  potential  thought.  Our  govern- 
ment understands  this.  It  is  our  effort  now  to  acquire  for  our  people 
a  measure  of  your  knowledge,  for  that  means  ascension  over  nature; 
and  a  people  is  great  and  powerful  just  in  the  degree  that  it  possesses 
the  ability  to  turn  nature  in  all  her  departments  to  the  gratification 
of  human  desires. 

But,  aside  from  these  abstractions,  we  have  only  to  look  about  us 
to  find  refutation  of  the  hypothesis  and  fear  of  Mr.  Young  that  "the 
Western  world  will  not  be  benefited  by  Chinese  development."  A 
few  years  ago,  when  our  neighbor  Japan — a  much  smaller  nation  than 
our  own,  and,  therefore,  more  sensitive  to  Western  influences — mani- 
fested signs  of  the  revival  which  has  since  so  distinguished  it,  Mr. 
Young  attacked  that  kingdom  just  as  he  is  now  assailing  us.  He  had 
then  the  same  fears  that  the  United  States  would  be  swamped  by  the 
goods  of  Japan,  just  as  he  now  expresses  fear  that  it  will  be  deluged 
with  the  products  of  China.  If  his  doctrines  had  been  believed  they 
would  have  driven  Japanese  trade  away  from  San  Francisco  through 
the  erection  of  those  "interposing  barriers"  which  he  so  much  desires 
to  be  built  against  China  with  the  result  that  there  would  have  been 
lost  to  the  city  and  country  about  $15,000,000  of  sales  to  Japan  a 
year.  But  his  alarms  were  not  heeded;  and  the  trade  with  Japan 
increased,  because,  by  the  introduction  and  use  of  machines,  the 
country,  which  produces  little  or  no  gold,  came  to  have  something  to 
buy  with.  In  1898,  it  bought  40,000,000  yen  worth  from  this  country, 
though  only  four  years  before  it  could  buy  but  6,000, coo  yen  worth- 
In  1898,  you  took  from  them  47,000,000  yen  worth  of  goods ;  so  that 
you  have  shown  a  disposition  to  increa.se  your  purchases  just  as  they 
have  increased  their  imports  from  you. 

If  Mr.  Young's  conclusion,  that  the  development  of  one   nation  is 


13 

harmful  to  the  condition  of  another  nation,  were  correct,  you  would 
naturally  expect  to  find  the  part  of  the  United  States  nearest  the 
developing'  nations  showing  the  worst  effects  of  the  blight.  What 
part  of  your  country  has  the  most  industry,  business,  finance,  devel- 
opment, the  side  that  fronts  Europe,  or  the  side  that  faces  quiescent  and 
undeveloped  Asia?  If  you  could  put  the  United  States  on  a  turntable 
and  twist  it  around  until  the  Golden  Gate  opposed  the  English  Chan- 
nel and  New  York  was  before  Hong  Kong,  would  San  Francisco  be 
benefited  or  damaged  by  its  contiguity  to  Europe?  Would  New  York 
benefit  China  or  would  China  sink  back  from  her  rising  evolution? 
Obviously,  Mr.  Young's  theories  are  thin  indeed;  he  has  against  him 
the  proved  experiment  of  unfolded  Europe.  Since  1888  England  has 
advanced  prodigiously.  You  are  now  taking  from  her  vastly  more 
than  you  took  then;  yet,  in  1888  you  sold  to  her  but  $32,000,000 
worth,  while  in  1898  this  amount  was  increased  to  $74,000,000.  Ger- 
many has  kept  full  pace  with  Europe's  advance,  a  fact  made  mani- 
fest in  the  great  increace  of  her  exports  to  the  United  States.  Yet  in 
1878  you  sold  her  $16,500,000,  and  in  1898,  $32,700,000.  England  and 
Germany  and  France  and  Italy  have  increased  in  their  power  to  buy 
from  you;  and  the  size  of  their  purchase  bills  has  promptly  manifested 
this  enlargement  of  their  ability.  Their  power  to  purchase,  however, 
is  not  the  power  to  send  gold,  which  would  be  all  drained  out  of  their 
countries  in  one  year's  buying,  but  the  power  to  send  to  you  the 
things  which  your  civilization  desires. 

So  will  it  be  with  China.  The  trade  which  now  only  amounts  to 
some  thirty-two  millions  both  ways  is  so  small  because  of  China's 
inability  to  make  larger  purchases.  When  we  multiply  the  things 
you  want,  that  same  variation  will  excite  in  us  a  desire  for  the  things 
you  have.  If  our  goods  are  cheap,  so  much  the  better  for  you.  We 
thereby  bring  you  more  of  labor  than  you  return  to  us.  The  teamster 
gives  to  the  lawyer  the  product  of  thirty  days'  toil  for  an  hour  of  the 
lawyer's  thought.  Both  are  benefited;  but,  in  the  aspect  of  things,  who 
acquires  the  higher  advantage  from  the  transaction?  We  may  give 
you  abundance  of  our  goods  for  little  of  your  goods;  but  you  will  be 
the  more  favored. 

Mr.  Young  takes  a  narrow  view  when  he  measures  the  possibilities 
of  the  Chinese  Empire  by  the  little  group  of  people  in  San  Francisco's 
Chinatown.  They  consume  little  of  American  wares,  it  is  true;  for 
few  expect  to  remain  here  permanently.  Most  of  them  look  foward 
to  the  time  when,  gathering  their  accumulated  stores,  they  can  return 
to  China.  This  is  caused  by  two  considerations:  (1)  the  hostile 
feeling  that  exists  against  the  Chinese  here,  due  to  the  agitations  of 
labor  leaders  and  political  charlatans;  and  (2)  the  obstructive  legisla- 
tion influenced  thereby,  with  the  result  that  their  freedom  is  curtailed 


M 

and  their  peace  and  property  are  made  insecure.  Moreover,  the 
difference  in  the  purchasing  power  of  their  money  here  and  in  China 
impels  them  to  aspire  to  live  in  the  country  where  their  wealth  will 
give  them  more  return.  All  of  these  conditions  will  undoubtedly 
cease  to  exist. 

I  do  not  believe  that  the  American  people  will  always  be  deluded 
as  to  the  value  and  necessity  of  Chinese  residents,  or  that  the  types 
of  men  who  now  influence  thought  on  that  subject  win  continue  to 
find  credence;  and  I  am  very  sure  that,  in  not  many  years,  the  China- 
man's money  earned  in  the  United  States  will  buy  but  little  more  in 
China  than  here.  For,  the  cost  of  living  will  rise  with  the  rate  of 
wages;  and  in  China  both  will  presently  reach  the  American  standard. 
I  do  not  expect  this  change  to  take  place  slowly.  The  movement 
now  progressing  in  China  has  attained  marvellous  speed;  and,  with 
the  aid  of  the  kindly  offices  of  the  Western  peoples,  especially  the 
people  of  the  United  States,  and  under  the  guidance  of  the  present 
sagacious  and  efficient  government  of  China,  we  shall  continue  our 
progress,  advancing  ever  upward,  making  ourselves  more  and  more 
fitted  to  be  a  benefit  to  the  world  and  to  merit  the  highest  esteem  in 
the  family  of  nations. 


Personal  reference  to  Mr.  Ho  Yow  by  the  editor  of  the  Forum. 

"Mr.  Ho  Yow,  Chinese  Consul-General  to  the  United  States,  was  born  in 
Hong  Kong,  in  1869.  Graduated  in  1885  at  the  Incorporated  Law  College  of 
London,  with  the  degree  of  Solicitor  in  Chancery.  Some  years  ago,  came  to  the 
United  States,  and  was  for  one  year  secretary  to  His  Excellency  Wu  Ting-fang, 
Chinese  Minister  at  Washington.  Left  that  post  to  accept  the  vice-consulateship 
in  San  Francisco,  where  he  was  sent  to  settle  a  dispute  which  had  arisen  between 
the  See  Yups  and  the  Sam  Yups,  rival  Chinese  clans  in  California.  The  success- 
ful solution  of  that  difficulty  and  the  restoration  of  order  procured  for  him  pro- 
motion to  the  Consul-Generalship,  which  office  he  has  since  held,  having  been 
Vice-Consul  one  year  and  Consul-General  two  years.  The  Consul  Generalship 
of  the  United  States  is  the  most  important  office  in  the  consular  service  of  China, 
and  Mr.  Ho  Yow  is  the  youngest  man  in  that  service.  His  great  effort  has  been 
to  give  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  a  correct  understanding  of  China,  its 
government  and  people,  as  well  as  to  expand  the  trade  relations  between  the  two 
countries." 


Comments  of  the  Press. 

Owing  to  the  number  and  length  of  the  newspaper  comments  which  have 
been  made  upon  the  foregoing  article  it  would  be  impossible  within  the  limits  of 
these  pages  to  notice  all,  or  to  give  in  full  the  few  that  are  noticed ;  excerpts, 
from  the  following,  however,  are  selected  : 

A   LIGHT  FROM   ASIA. 

There  is  a  most  remarkable  article  in  The  Forum  for  March  that  should  be 
read  by  every  thinking  man  in  America.  It  is  from  the  pen  of  Ho  Yow,  Chinese 
Consul- General  to  the  United  States,  and  it  puts  before  the  world  a  specimen  of 
high  economic  thinking  that  puts  to  shame  the  tawdry  compositions  generally 
produced  upon  economics.  There  are  eternal  principles  of  human  development 
written  in  this  Chinaman's  essay,  which  are  an  undiscovered  country  to  half  the 
members  of  our  Congress,  and  unfamiliar  to  the  pages  of  our  magazines  and 
politics.  The  article  as  a  whole  is  a  fit  introduction  to  the  study  of  the  practical, 
political  economy  that  awaits  the  Americans  of  the  Twentieth  Century. 

The  Consul-General  is  answering  a  recent  argument  made  in  The  Forum  by  Mr. 
John  P.  Young  of  San  Francisco,  who  sought  to  establish  that  China's  develop- 
ment bodes  ill  to  the  United  States,  because  the  Chinese  will  undersell  us  as 
competitors  and  fail  of  increasing  demands  as  buyers.  Mr.  Young's  misconcep- 
tions have  been  abundantly  refuted,  but  by  none  so  admirably  as  by  this  gifted 
Chinaman.  He  takes  up  the  errors,  one  by  one,  and  puts  them  alongside  the 
ascertained  truth  of  experience  in  a  way  that  leaves  them  without  a  shadow  of 
support  or  excuse  among  thinking  men. 

We  have  countless  statesmen  and  scholars  in  the  United  States  who  could, 
with  profit,  be  sent  to  school  to  this  sagacious  Chinaman.  In  the  mind  of  every 
man  who  reads  his  article  the  name  of  China  must  stand  for  something  higher 
and  better  than  before.  We  are  getting  familiar  these  days  with  the  evils  that 
flow  from  the  pernicious  activity  of  the  half  educated.  They  muddle  our  finances, 
they  distort  and  encumber  our  trade,  they  block  out  the  pathway  to  a  high  place 
among  the  nations.  But  it  is  little  short  of  humiliating  to  receive  a  lesson  in 
liberality  and  clear  thinking  from  a  representative  of  the  very  people  whom  we 
aspire  to  teach  and  elevate. — Portland  Oregonian. 


i 


LIGHT  FROM  THE  ORIENT. 


The  Chinese  Minister  recently  made  some  very  pointed  observations  at  a  public 
dinner  in  New  York,  and  at  the  dedication  of  the  Law  School  building  in  Phila- 
delphia he  not  only  exposed  some  of  our  inconsistencies  with  refined  sarcasm,  but 
clearly  carried  off  the  palm  of  oratory  from  our  speakers.  And  now  comes  the 
Chinese  Consul  General  with  an  article  in  the  March  number  of  The  Forum,  in 
whim  he  elucidates  the  protectionist  theory  of  foreign  trade  with  a  logic  which 
would  bafccruel  but  for  its  delicate  humor. 

Mr.  Ho  Yow,  not  without  guile,  entitles  his  article,  "  Western  Benefits  Through 
China's  Development."  That  is  the  proper  way  to  attract  the  hard-headed  men 
of  business  who  take  a  practical  view  of  our  mission  in  the  East  and  mean,  as  Mr. 
Grosvenor  of  Ohio  says,  to  make  all  the  money  they  can  out  of  expansion. 
11  What  is  there  in  it  for  us  ?  "  is  their  cry,  and  when  the  Consul-General  of  China 
begins  to  talk  of  "Western  benefits"  they  naturally  prick  up  their  ears.  But  as 
he  proceeds  to  unfold  the  conditions  on  which  these  benefits  are  to  be  obtained,  the 
agreeable  anticipations  of  these  readers  will  be  painfully  dispelled.     Such  benefits 


i6 

are  not  to  be  had  for  nothing,  our  Chinese  adviser  assures,  usj>  and  if  we  are  to 
enlarge  our  exports  to  China,  we  can  do  so  only  by  allowing  the  Chinese  to  enlarge 
their  exports  to  this  country. 

With  these  and  even  more  forcible  arguments,  the  Chinese  Consul-General 
"  wipes  the  floor  u  with  the  unfortunate  Mr.  Young,  and  in  view  of  the  audacity 
of  his  proceeding,  it  is  pertinent  to  ask  whether  the  Chinese  Exclusion  Act  should 
not  be  extended  so  as  to  keep  out  laborers  in  the  field  of  oratory  and  literature. 
When  American  audiences  desert  the  hall  while  eminent  citizens  are  holding 
forth,  and  throng  it  with  delighted  enthusiasm  and  applause  when  the  Chinese 
Minister  opens  his  mouth,  and  when  prominent  editors  are  held  up  to  the  derision 
of  all  reasoning  mankind  in  the  pages  of  our  magazines,  it  is  time  for  sincere 
protectionists  to  protest.  Perhaps  the  wily  Oriental  may  find  that  his  specious 
plea  for  the  free  admission  of  the  products  of  his  country  has  undone  his  cause  ; 
for  if  our  leading  editors  find  themselves  excelled  by  Chinese  writers,  protection 
will  be  demanded  by  our  press  wit1!  a  zeal  hitherto  unparalleled. — New  York  Post. 


HO  YOW  ON  "DEVELOPING  CHINA." 
One  of  the  noteworthy  evidences  that  China  is  coming  out  of  her  .shell  is  the 
greater  readiness  with  which  her  representative  men  in  other  lands  frankly 
express  their  opinions  on  current  topics  of  interest  whether  they  concern  Cathay 
or  more  "modern "  nations.  Of  course,  this  is  another  indication  that  the  men 
of  affairs  in  that  ancient  empire  are  beginning  to  wake  up  and  to  realize  that  not 
alone  the  world  of  the  distant  past  concerns  their  country,  but  the  world  of  the 
present,  and  above  all,  the  world  of  the  future. 

The  inquisitive  questions  and  bright  comments  made  by  Li  Hung  Chang  during 
his  late  visit  to  this  country  have  not  been  forgotten.  It  is  realized  that  they 
came  from  a  real  thinker,  however  different  his  "point  of  view  "  might  be  from 
that  of  the  average  American. 

Since  Li's  visit,  the  diplomatic  and  consular  representatives  of  China  in  this 
country  have  manifested  a  willingness  to  express  themselves  fully,  here  and  in 
England,  on  various  topics,  with  a  frankness  and  freedom  which  are  pleasantly 
notable.  The  Chinese  minister  at  Washington  has  made  more  than  one  notable 
address  of  late. 

And  now  Ho  Yow,  Chinese  Consul- General  to  the  United  States,  deals  in  the 
March  Forum  with  the  suggestive  topic,  "Western  Benefits  Through  Chinese 
Development."  He  begins  his  article  by  acknowledging  that  the  leavening  of 
the  vast  Chinese  Empire,  begun  within  the  past  quarter  of  a  century,  by  Western 
thought,  is  now  strongly  felt  throughout  the  realm.  Under  the  fostering 
influence  of  a  wise  and  progressive  government,  it  is  effecting  in  a  nation  of  over 
400,000,000  souls  marvelously  beneficent  changes.  That  the  development  of 
China  can  possibly  operate  to  the  harm  of  the  nations  with  which  it  trades,  if 
trade  be  left  open  between  them,  Ho  Yow  strenuously  denies. — Boston  Globe. 


THE  BUGBEAR  OF  ORIENTAL  COMPETITION. 
American  working  men  who  see  peril  to  their  interests  in  the  annexation  of 
the  Philippines  and  the  competition  of  Asiatic  labor,  would  do  well  to  read  the 
masterly  paper  in  The  Forum  for  March  from  the  pen  of  Ho  Yow,  Chinese  Consul! 
General  to  the  United  States,  on  "Western  Benefits  Through  China's  Develop™ 
ment,"  It  is  interesting  to  find  this  brilliant  Oriental  taking  substantially  the 
same  ground  as  that  taken  in  several  articles  printed  on  this  page,  notably  one 
which  appeared  February  4th  on  "Oriental  Competition  with  American  Labor." 
He  declares  in  substance,  etc.  *  *  *  If  you  could  put  the  UnitedJStates  on  a 
turntable  and  twist  it  around  until  the  Golden  Gate  opposed  thejftSnglish 
Channel  and  New  York  was  before  Hong  Kong  would  San  Francisco'e  bene- 
fited or  damaged  by  its  contiguity  to  Europe?"  That  question,  put  by 
the  Chinese  Consul-General,  is  apt  to  be  a  poser  to  those  who  imagine  that  a 
sleepy,  inactive  population  facing  us  across  the  Pacific  is  a  safer  thing  for 
American  interests  than  will  be  a  roused,  eager,  aspiring  population.  In  point  of 
fact,  as  the  Pioneer  Press  has  heretofore  pointed  out  in  other  words,  if  we  can  fill 
the  Orient  with  an  European  hunger  even  the  marvelous  development  of 
American  industries  witnessed  in  the  last  fifty  years  will  have  to  be  surpassed  to 
meet  that  hunger's  demand. — St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press. 


